CMU Remains On 20 Mio EUR Investment Budget

One of the most significant achievements of the Unirea Medical Centre Co. (CMU) was the opening of the Regina Maria Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital at the end of 2008. "We are entering into the 15th year of a business that we started in an apartment in Unirii Square. We were pioneers when we introduced the concept of medical service subscriptions in 1996. We have expanded the CMU services in the entire country and developed international cooperation within the Academic Partnership. In 2008 alone, CMU completed 10 new projects," said CMU founder, Dr. Wargha Enayati.

• 2008, a year of investments

CMU inaugurated the Motilor Medical Centre, a clinic in Cluj Napoca organized onto two sites and is planning to inaugurate the third one this year. CMU also opened the paediatrics clinic CMU Kids in the Opera Centre in Bucharest and then the Baneasa Diagnosis and Treatment Centre. In the spring of 2008, the company opened CMU - Ploiesti, as the result of a green field project developed with local partners. CMU then acquired Avamedica, a medical company having three clinics in Constanta, which will soon be complemented by a diagnosis and treatment centre. The existing clinic in the Iride Business Park was expanded by a new site, dedicated to occupational health diagnosis centre. CMU also established a Stem Cell Bank. The company is sharing know-how with the New England Blood Cord, which is directly connected to the Research Centre of the Harvard University. CMU also developed an Academic Partnership with a number of leading medical professionals in Romania and abroad.

"I"ve always been bold. Even my presence in Romania was interesting to me. In 1995, when the real estate market here was growing, I was tempted to invest in property, but I decided I shouldn"t focus just on speculations, but on the idea to start a cardiology and internal medicine practice. That"s how I started the practice in that apartment in Unirii Square and that"s where I became the physician of several embassies and international and Romanian companies. That was the point when I came up with the idea that the Unirea Medical Centre and Medsana should be the first to offer a system of subscriptions to medical services in Romania," Dr. Enayati told Bursa. "I hope we won"t be affected by the financial crisis. We can tell that at the beginning of this year especially in terms of subscription sales. I think our sales will increase, actually," he added.

• CMU continues expansion in 2009

CMU will continue to develop outside Bucharest in 2009. The company will open four clinics and organize a system of large polyclinics covering all medical disciplines. The turnover is expected to grow by 50% year-on-year to 16.5 million EUR. The main revenue drivers will be the retail projects that have already been commissioned: the new obstetrics and gynaecology hospital, the imagery centre, the new polyclinics outside Bucharest and the Stem Cell Bank. Concurrently, the corporate subscriptions segment will continue to grow as sales in the first quarter of 2009 are likely to largely exceed the figure for Q1, 2008.

In 2009, CMU will continue to work on the previously allocated 20 million EUR investment budget as the company is executing several projects in Bucharest to tap new market segments and across the country, in partnerships with local players.